Why this Cluster exists 

The Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay regions have strong local manufacturing industries and, coupled with broader governmental initiatives to boost Australian manufacturing, there is a clear need to strengthen our research activity with industry.

We are well positioned to capitalise on emerging opportunities through the University’s membership of ARM Hub, focused on supporting Australian industry’s adoption of advanced manufacturing, and with the development of a ‘technology precinct’ at The Mill at Moreton Bay. The Moreton Bay regional council is establishing the precinct so that local industry are co-located with the University to foster collaboration and innovation with the goal to drive economic growth in the region. This sits alongside the recent establishment of new engineering programs and facilities at the Moreton Bay campus of UniSC.

The cluster aims to be at the forefront of developing materials and processing that can help to reduce our footprint on the environment. By providing a focal point for materials and manufacturing engineering researchers to engage with partners and industry to build research capacity we aim to identify more sustainable materials and manufacturing practices and contribute to the University’s broader efforts on sustainability. 

The cluster members have established records of research in the materials and manufacturing engineering space.

A/Prof. Damon Kent has experience in commercial manufacturing and is Project Leader on The ARC Research Hub for Advanced Manufacturing of Medical Devices. He leads a portfolio of industry focused research centred around development and processing of metallic alloys for structural applications across the medical, aerospace, and automotive industries. He applies advanced characterisation methods to study the structure and properties of materials. 

Dr Rezwanul Haque was recipient of an Asia-Oceania Neutron Scattering Association (AONSA) young research fellowship and is UniSC’s Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE Ltd.) councillor. 

Dr Ayodele Olofinjana is the Australian representative for the Global Congress on Manufacturing and Management Board.

Dr Charith Rathnayaka conducts transdisciplinary research in the fields of computational mechanics, food engineering and physics-informed machine learning to solve the grand challenges of food security and climate-change adaptation. He is the Co-Leader of the QUT-UniSC Data-driven Computational Modelling Research Group and serves as a chief investigator for a number of research projects related to sustainable agriculture and food systems and computational predictive frameworks. In doing so, he leverages state-of-the-art computational modelling and experimental techniques with the aid of high-performance computing.

The cluster provides a focal point for materials and manufacturing engineering research to engage with partners and industry.

The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing cluster supports research on materials and processing, fostering research collaboration with other groups across the University including in civil, construction, electrical and mechatronic engineering, agriculture, biotechnology, aquaculture, and prosthetics.  

Some of the key projects and their impact:

• Olofinjana, Haque and Kent are researching new generation lead-free solder materials to replace conventional lead solders, to address health and environmental concerns around lead contamination and exposure. 
• Kent has led a team of researchers engaged on projects with industry to develop and transfer state-of-the-art technologies for medical device manufacturing. The research has led to improvements in the design, manufacture and function of critical healthcare devices which delivered improved health outcomes for patients and boosted local manufacturing industry. The Hub has provided training for UniSC researchers who have progressed to careers in the medical device industry.  
• Kent, Li, and Rathnayaka have a Launch Pilot project with researchers from the Centre for Bioinnovation to develop better implant materials for bone repair and replacement with enhanced mechanical performance, biocompatibility, and resistance against bacterial infection.
• Rathnayaka co-leads a cross-institutional research group that conducts research at the interface of computational mechanics and machine learning to develop cutting-edge engineering analyses related to soft-matter mechanics, topology optimisation and nonlinear dynamics with a vision to address food security and climate change.  

Contact: A/Prof. Damon Kent